Elseng language
Elseng | |
---|---|
Morwap | |
Region | Papua,Indonesia:Jayapura and Keerom regencies - Abepura, Arso, Kemtuk Gresi, and Senggi districts;Lake Sentaniarea - south, southwest. |
Native speakers | 300 (2018)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mrf |
Glottolog | else1239 |
ELP | Elseng |
Elseng(Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu[2]) is a poorly documentedPapuan languagespoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in theIndonesianprovince ofPapua.It is also known asMorwap,which means "what is it?" ‘Morwap’ is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.[1]
Elseng is spoken inOmonvillage,Gresi Selatandistrict,Jayapura Regency;it is also calledTabuorTapu.[3]
Classification
[edit]Laycock classified Elseng as alanguage isolatebut noted pronominal similarities with theBorder languages.Ross included it in Border because of these similarities but noted that it does not appear to share any lexical similarities with the family. However, this may be an effect of the paucity of data on Elseng. Foley similarly classifies Elseng as an isolate.[2]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4]also found lexical similarities with theBorder languages.
Phonology
[edit]Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
voiced | b | g | |||
prenas. | ᵐb | ᵑɡ | |||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ||
voiced | v | ||||
Approximant | w | l | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | |
Open | a |
Pronouns
[edit]Pronouns are:[2]
sg | pl | |
---|---|---|
1excl | ka | kam |
1incl | yo | |
2 | so | sem |
3 | yi |
Basic vocabulary
[edit]Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted inFoley(2018):[5][2]
Elseng basic vocabulary gloss Elseng ‘bird’ bisyas ‘blood’ sakwos ‘bone’ wok ‘breast’ pan ‘ear’ waskwos ‘eat’ tou ‘egg’ syungwin ‘eye’ nafon ‘fire’ bət ‘give’ venenggiʔ ‘go’ gele ‘ground’ mo ‘hair’ nimbias ‘hear’ sɨkwen ‘leg’ poksən ‘louse’ ku ‘man’ seseu ‘moon’ məm ‘name’ tin ‘road, path’ mol ‘see’ nɨnggwen ‘sky’ kuil ‘stone’ səpak ‘sun’ ningnaf ‘tongue’ mosən ‘tooth’ an ‘tree’ sək ‘water’ vetev ‘woman’ saun
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7]as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
gloss Elseng head walambiap hair nimbias ear mo; uskŋs eye naf nose sənpokep tooth an tongue mɔs; mɔsən leg pokəs louse ku dog wəs pig wo bird bisjas; bisyas egg suŋun blood wətwən bone ok skin son; sɔn breast pan tree sək man sisɛu; sisew woman saɔ sun ninaf moon mɔm water wətel; wətəl fire bot; bɔt stone səpat road, path mul eat to
Sentences and phrases
[edit]Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:[2]
ka
1
makən
POSS
teti
father
‘my/our father’
waso
man
amsan
good
‘good man’
tele
father
si
garden
fa-san
work-?
‘Father is working (his) garden.’
tele
father
bas
?
to-san
eat-?
‘Father is eating.’
References
[edit]- ^abElsengatEthnologue(25th ed., 2022)
- ^abcdefgFoley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.).The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide.The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568.ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^Burung, Wiem. 2000. A Brief Note on Elseng. SIL International Electronic Survey Reports 2000–001.
- ^Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013.ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
- ^Menanti, Jackie. 2005.Sociolinguistic Report on the Elseng Language in Sia-Sia Village, Keerom County, Papua, Indonesia.Unpublished report. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
- ^Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors,Papers in New Guinea LinguisticsNo. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971.doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
- ^Voorhoeve, C.L.Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists.B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975.doi:10.15144/PL-B31
- ^Greenhill, Simon (2016)."TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea".Retrieved2020-11-05.